Taylor521's Journal

quick update:

begining week 3 of radiation tomorrow, still practically no side effects, a little sleepy is all. no nausea or anything from chemo, nothing. i'm basically normal. no drama here lol.
i'm getting nervous about the hair situation, with it falling out and stuff. i've heard that it starts falling out around this time (end of week 2 some have said, others say end of week 3 and such) and tonight i noticed there was a not dramatic but noticable increase in hair coming out when i combed it so i dunno.. maybe i'm paranoid? possibly but gimme a break righ? lol.

OHHHHHHH I GOT A PUPPY!!!!!
CHECK OUT PICTURES! SHE'S AWESOME!
she's a 9 week old Lhasa Apso puppy, 3 lbs, and just the sweetest little ball of fur you've ever seen. she's not afraid of our bigger dogs, who just sorta ignore her. she doesnt like going down stairs, and she likes to chew on toes. her name's lulabelle (LU-la bell) but i've been calling her lula.

so yea that's about it, just thought i'd update. i'm feeling fine, pretty normal. everyone is always like ooohhhh how are you and everything and i'm always just like uh... i'm fine. i just have a gary in my brain is all. lol. well i think i'm gonna be goin to bed pretty soon cuz tomorrow's monday and i have radiation to go to and lula needs to go out sometime to pee soon so yes... salutations to all and good-night.

oh my goodness i have not posted on here in a long long while. well lets see, where did i leave off? oh boy a while ago... well... i'll try and make this concise (sp?)...

Tumor is a Stage 3  Astrocytoma, but i think i've said that already
the tumor as of now cant be removed, but we're hoping that with treatment that'll change
i started radiation and chemo on monday, and i'll be doing that for 6 weeks along with 42 days of Temodar. we're staying at Loyola for radiation because we really like the radiation oncologist.
after the 42 days on Temodar i'll have a 4 week break, then start 6 cycles of 5 days of Temodar (higher dose) and the first day a drug called CCNU.

i'm getting my hair cut tomorrow, it's gonna be SHORT. and i'm NERVOUS. but i think it'll be for the best, if my hair really starts falling out and stuff it wont be as like oh my god.
and i figure if i completely hate it i'll just wear a bandana. i'm keeping my bangs so it wont look terrible. i'm sort of excited though cuz it's such a change. i've always had this huge thick long head of hair and i'm cutting it off.
OH! EEEEEE GUESS WHAT?
I'M GETTING A PUPPY!
exciting right?
we just need to find one lol.
that's our new little project.

but yes, i started treatments monday and that's going well. i mean it's only wednesday, so that's only like.. 3 days but still. the only thing i'm noticing is that i'm sleepy after radiation but other than that nothing. i havent felt sick or anything. so i'm just hoping it stays that way.

i'm really not expecting to update this thing all that frequently. simply for the fact that i hope that there is no need to update ya know? lol. i hope that everything stays going smoothly so there's no news.

oh, and my tumor's name is gary. i named him. he's ugly and grey and we're gonna kick his ass.
just so you know.

lol.

ok so i'm a little confused about what was SUPPOSED to happen today.. i think we were just supposed to call this dr. goldman instead of actually going up to the hospital but we did anyway but he saw us anyway, which was nice. he's a really cool guy, like the cool uncle vibe type thing. tells bad jokes and stuff ya know?
well they didnt have my MRIs or anything so he was just going off of what my other doctor had told him so i'm not going to post much up here right now because we're not positive of anything.
dr. goldman is a pediatric oncologist who specializes in pediatric brain tumors (such as my own)
dr goldman says that since my tumor has not only characteristics of a stage 2 but also of a stage 3 and he thinks that we should treat it more aggessivly in turn. which i think is reasonable. it'd be harder at the time but it'd help get it out faster right?
he's suggesting that i take part in this clinical trial testing a new treatment. we're not 100% positive if we're going to do it but i think we're leaning towards it. i'm not fully aware of the other option/options.

i'm not really that well informed right now, we're going back in tomorrow when all of my information will be there and dr goldman can make a better judgement about what he's talking about cuz it's sorta hard to talk about something you havent seen and he was tenative on telling us things simply for the fact that he hadnt seen any of my stuff.

OH MY GOD. GUESS WHAT?!?!

I DONT HAVE TO TAKE ANY MORE FINALS.
NO HISTORY, ART, OR BIOLOGY.

do you have any idea how much i just wanna give those teachers a hug? and ms fraher, cuz i dont have to take geometry either. i mean seriously. my mother told me that today and i am still just like oh my god thank you lord. just like sigh. whew. huge weight off my chest. cuz i'm missing tomorrow too cuz we're going in again ya know? but i almost feel guilty you know? cuz  its like... everyone else had to take it and i dont want to seem like a flake or something... i'm such a nerd lol but still i feel a little bad..

so i'm done with school.
that was a little anti-climactic.
lol.
i think i'm gonna go in on thursday and clean out my locker and stuff though... so i dunno that'll be my closure i suppose. i have GOT to thank atchley gantzert fraher and skrids though, i mean they have NO idea how much i owe them now. like ACK i'm just overwhelmed with how awesome that is.